LE

I live about a mile north of Heathrow and used to see Concorde both in the air and on the ground quite frequently. I've been close to the airport perimeter on many occasions as it's been either taking off or coming in to land. Locals could tell the approximate time in the mornings when you heard it's engines roaring as it took off for it's daily flight to New York.

Despite the noise etc, there was quite a bit of affection for Concorde. When the last few flights took place after the disaster, I and many others went to watch them because we knew we were watching the end of an aircraft legend taking place.

Thanks for posting this video. It was informative and it was nice to hear the facts about what caused the crash and the demise of an iconic aircraft with a very strong local connection to my area.

Brexit. The biggest economic suicide note in the history of the modern UK.

LE

#Irrelevant factoid: Concord(e) actually had its own track assignment in the RN's CACS radar system. Never used it myself or saw it used though. Probably just one of those things the developers may have thought would be relevent.
You could assign a track to an air contact and amplify the info accordingly. I have vague memories of sonic boom being accounted for as well in various options.

I speak as a single mother & a junior doctor so you are morally obliged to agree with me, or at least be seen to agree with me to further your virtue signalling.

LE

Yeah got that on my bookmarks (sad like that)
Capt Mike Bannister. There is a version where it is filmed as well, from him initially greeting the passengers etc in the terminal.
There is also The landing UK version as well.
If you don't have them / are interested I'll search my files and post links

LE

Yeah got that on my bookmarks (sad like that)
Capt Mike Bannister. There is a version where it is filmed as well, from him initially greeting the passengers etc in the terminal.
There is also The landing UK version as well.
If you don't have them / are interested I'll search my files and post links

LE

Anyone here flew on it? I once managed to checkin at the Concord desk for a normal BA flight. The flight I was on was a BA checkin for multiple flights and the queue was massive, and my flight was soon to close. Did the whole ID card thing etc, no idea if that had any bearing on it but the concord desk checked in my bag. Did not occur to me at the time how ludicrous a hungover bloke with a bulging sportsbag looked to people in the queue next door - checking in at Concord desk.

I speak as a single mother & a junior doctor so you are morally obliged to agree with me, or at least be seen to agree with me to further your virtue signalling.

LE

Yeah got that on my bookmarks (sad like that)
Capt Mike Bannister. There is a version where it is filmed as well, from him initially greeting the passengers etc in the terminal.
There is also The landing UK version as well.
If you don't have them / are interested I'll search my files and post links

LE

I've had my ups and downs in life, mostly up, but there's been some snakes along with the ladders. Not many regrets. I'd do it all again, possibly with some minor changes. The one thing that gets me though, is I didn't fly on Concorde.

As a nipper, my grandparents lived under the flightpath out of LHR in Reading. 1100 or so, every day, Speedbird Concorde 001 would pass overhead. Reading station was on the GW mainline. Westerns and HST sets. It was a dream to go stay at my grandparents in the summer.

If they get one in the sky again, I'll be on it. Don't give a shite how much it costs.

"...I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace"

War Hero

LE

I've had my ups and downs in life, mostly up, but there's been some snakes along with the ladders. Not many regrets. I'd do it all again, possibly with some minor changes. The one thing that gets me though, is I didn't fly on Concorde.

As a nipper, my grandparents lived under the flightpath out of LHR in Reading. 1100 or so, every day, Speedbird Concorde 001 would pass overhead. Reading station was on the GW mainline. Westerns and HST sets. It was a dream to go stay at my grandparents in the summer.

If they get one in the sky again, I'll be on it. Don't give a shite how much it costs.

My parents lived just south of Reading - right under the flight path too, always used to make me look up if I was in the garden.

The stopped clock of The Belfast Telegraph seems to indicate the
time
Of the explosion - or was that last week's? Difficult to keep
track:
Everything's a bit askew, like the twisted pickets of the
security gate, the wreaths,
That approximate the spot where I'm told the night patrol
went through.

LE

I had a bit to do a few years back with Dunlop Aircraft Tyres (not by then a part of the bigger company of the same name subsequently bought by Goodyear). It was the MD there who pointed me at the articles about what happened with the Air France Concorde. The truth has been out and reported on for quite some years.

The sleeve being missing on one of the main undercarriage axles caused crabbing and a very distinct skid pattern. The drag kept the aircraft on the ground. By the time it ran over the piece of debris that shredded the tyre, the aircraft should already have been airborne.

The subsequent 'what happened' investigation was a masterclass in sparing Air France's blushes. From conversations at the time, the British Airways guys were quite disparaging about their Gallic peers' attitudes to maintenance.

... and the other tyre manufacturers were equally pissed off that the French only asked Michelin to come up with a safer tyre solution. The Dunlop guys were totally confident that they could have produced the same. Protectionism was blamed.

Lots of human error and accidental debris seem to be the culprits. Reading other reports show that had the weight limit and balance been correct, along with the under-carriage spacer been fitted, the aircraft would have taken off before it would have been in the location where the debris was.

A real amalgam of lots of small things that on their own, or even a few together, wouldn't have been an issue - but all together...

Same here. Used to hear the double-boom every evening, regular as clockwork. Strange to relate we still hear it as one of the cats dossing on the bed jumps off round about that time as she thinks it's about time for night rations, making a very similar sound.

My most abiding memory of her though was when I was posted in Hounslow. Summer 75 I think it was when she was doing various trials and route-proving out of Heathrow. During this period when the wind was easterly, which was not that often, a smallish red truck used to come on Beavers Lane Camp (now long gone, though the quarters still exist) to monitor the sound levels.

I used to go on a grass area of the camp most summer evenings to hit a hundred or so golf balls. This evening I hadn't noticed the red truck parked unobtrusively alongside one of the huts. I was right out in the open collecting up the balls when Concorde took off and immediately overhead stood on her tail with engines on reheat - obviously trialling an emergency. The noise was so huge it drove me to my knees with hands over my lug'oles, and I was deaf with ears ringing for the rest of the evening.

The British soldier can stand up to anything - except the British War Office. George Bernard Shaw